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boston.com blogs and comments
By adamg on Tue, 05/23/2006 - 3:18pm
Bryan Person reports that boston.com is re-evaluating its stance against allowing comments on its blogs, which he says won't come a moment too soon:
... To be considered a true player in the blogosphere, Boston.com must take the shackles off its talented bloggers and allow them to engage in a true multi-directional conversation. One-way communication online is simply no longer acceptable.
But in the meantime, feel free to comment on ol' Universal Hub.
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Comments
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http://proactivebusybody.com
Commenting is half the fun
Commenting is half the fun of blogging and reading blogs. It is designed to spark conversation right?
They could ask Joe Dwinell for advice
Oh, right, he blogs for the Herald.
Herald blog
He sure does, Joe. And check out all those comments! Seems like people are aching to participate in the conversation.
O brave new world that has such posters in it!
There's nearly 600 comments in the Entwhistle "This ain't no lynch blog" entry there, presented on one ginormous page, and nearly everybody there seems to be preoccupied with namecalling, arguing, flameslinging, and fractured infighting. Is this supposed to be a public conversation between the newspaper and its readers? A salon this ain't. There's something to be said for editorial control, dude.
The Herald's example is nothing more than a message board, really, only it's worse, since most actual message boards have better interfaces for threaded conversations, multi-page displays, and whatnot. I'm not sure what you were hoping to illustrate by that example, but your "public comments for all!" argument sure takes a beating when we view the practical applications after the breathless theorizing.
Allowing comments on blogs
Exactly, Lew. Check out this description of outgoing Globe ombudsman Richard Chacon's blog:
"Richard Chacón writes a blog in an effort to faciliate a regular, public conversation between those who read the Globe (or its website) and those who produce the Globe."
Where on the blog, exactly, is this "public conversation"?
No comments = no public conversation.
My criticism is aimed not at the bloggers themselves, but squarely at Boston.com.